Small experiences can lead to mighty testimony
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Visiting a Sunday School class when he was an Area Seventy, Elder Carlos A. Godoy of the Seventy was challenged by the teacher to think of a powerful experience he had in gaining a testimony. He said he couldn't recall such an experience.
But he knows, he said during the Sunday afternoon session, that while a testimony for some "may come through a single and unquestionable event, ... for others it may come through a process of experiences, perhaps not as remarkable, but when combined, testify in an indisputable way that what we have learned and lived is true."
He said, "Sometimes, we think that to have a testimony of the Church, we need some great, powerful experience, or a single event which would erase any doubts that we have received an answer or a confirmation."
In his own experience, he related, "As a young man in Porto Alegre, Brazil, learning about the Church from two sister missionaries, I remember looking for an answer to my prayers, with something big and unquestionable. It never happened. That does not mean that I did not develop enough certainty to join the Restored Church."
Then, referring to Alma's teachings in Alma 32 comparing the growth of faith and testimony to that of a seed, Elder Godoy said, "Since those days as an investigator of the Church, and later as a missionary, and then as a father and a leader, all of these experiences together formed a set of experiences and feelings, most often small, that leave no doubt 'the seed is a good seed' (Alma 32:30)."
He said, "Today, after many years as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I might not be able to remember most of all experiences that have shaped my testimony. Still, all of these experiences have left their mark and contributed to my testimony of the Restored Church. Today, I have an absolute certainty of the truths of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ."
